US Parents Are Naming Their Children After Pokemon Go Characters

Trending News: Oh God, Parents Are Now Naming Their Kids After Pokemon

Why Is This Important?

Long Story Short

Pregnancy and parenting advice site Babycenter has revealed a shocking new trend for American parents naming their children after Pokemon Go characters, including Roselia, Onyx and Eevee.

Long Story

It’s pretty incredible to imagine but a month ago Pokemon Go hadn’t even entered our lives. Now it seems to have taken over pretty much every aspect. The latest sign that the world has gone Pokemon crazy is news that parents in the US are starting to name their babies after Pokemon characters.

Yes, really. According to Babycenter, which keeps track of the names being registered for newborns, there has been a sharp rise in Pokemon-related names.

The chart of baby name popularity shows that Roselia has risen 5,859 places, Onyx is up 2,184 in the list and there are significant jumps for Star (up 2,040), Eevee (up 1,377) and Ivy (up 1,287), while Ash (up 248) and Shay (up 64) are also benefitting from all this Pokemadness.

The good news is that the names that have become more popular are at least proper names. There doesn’t seem to have been a spike in babies being called Charmander (Charm for short?) or Mankey.

“Parents are always looking to pop culture for baby name inspiration, and, right now, it doesn’t get any hotter than Pokemon Go. It’s possible that parents’ enthusiasm for the game will reignite their love for the brand and spark a full-fledged naming trend,” Babycenter global editor in chief Linda Murray told the BBC.

There was a trend of naming babies after Game of Thrones characters thanks to the success of the HBO series with the UK’s Office of National Statistics reporting 244 babies named Arya and 53 Khaleesi in 2014. There were also nine Daenerys (who will spend most of their childhood trying to spell their name) and four Briennes. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-33964762)

But before you write Pikachu on that birth certificate it might be worth remembering that Pokemon went out of our lives for a good couple of decades before Pokemon Go, so your poor kid might be left explaining their name for the rest of their life.

Just think — there was once a time when, if someone had a weird name, they'd sigh and say "my parents were hippies." Now little Squirtle will sigh and say "my parents were millennials."

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Which Pokemon character would be the best name for a kid?

Disrupt Your Feed

If you’re going to name a child after a Pokemon Go you might as well go the whole way and call it Spoink or Ho-oh!

Drop This Fact

A UK player has claimed that he lost two stone while catching all the Pokemon available in the UK, possibly starting a new fitness fad.